After Vol VIII
by KristinMilly
Summary: Volume VIII ended terribly. This is fixing that.


Author's Note: Okay. So I basically am horrible and haven't posted in a long time. But I've been really busy with graduating and all that other stuff. But I just re-read PD 8 and got really mad. By the end of all the other books you at least feel happy with where Mia is and most of her problems get resolved. Yes, I know it isn't realistic, but who needs that? And if anyone else wrote something like this then I'm sorry. I haven't read it so I'm not stealing anything.

Since Volume IX is starting right after book VIII ends I am putting what I think should happen.

And I'm also writing the finale to my other series guys. I promise. I'm writing part III as we speak and will post the last chapter once I finish it. I swear to Jason

* * *

I quickly changed into what I can only assume Grandmere would deem appropriate for a princess to wear to the theater; a black dress from Chanel's latest season. I know she'd like it because it has a huge bow that practically eats my left arm. Princess' should always be wearing gigantic bows. 

I walked into the living room where my mother and Mr. G were getting ready to go to Long Island for his mother's birthday party

"Whoa, where do you think you are going?" was Mom's immediate response.

"JP called. He has tickets to _Beauty and the Beast_ so I said I'd meet him at the theater."

I saw my mom and Mr. G share a look. "You mean, JP the boy you kissed today in front of Michael?" Mom asked.

I very nearly fell back on the decision to go once I heard Michael's name. The feelings of self pity were overwhelming. But Grandmere says that a princess never allows herself to feel bad. "Mom, I didn't _mean_ to kiss him. It was a total miscommunication. I went to kiss him on the _cheek_ but he turned and I kissed him on the _lips_. But I couldn't explain that to _Michael_ as a result of my not talking to him before all of that."

She just stared at me like I was a lunatic. I mean, I guess I kind of am since only a few hours ago I was just a puddle of a girl. And honestly, on the inside I am. I really am.

Mr. G had a Cheeto hanging from his lips, "Mia, I don't think that is such a good idea."

"What isn't?" I asked him.

"Maybe you need to stay home for the night. You've had a really long week and are having a bad day," Mom explained.

I just caught sight of myself in the mirror. God, she probably says that I shouldn't step out of the house on the account of just how red and puffy my eyes are. "I don't have time to fight," I replied. "The limo is downstairs. C'mon Lars."

My family walked out with me. Rocky started crying like a nut. But screw it, I _won't _be a babylicker anymore.

We made our way to the doors of the building but I stopped short. No, I hadn't gotten my heel stuck on anything; but I hadn't been planning on seeing _Michael_ in my doorway.

And hadn't expected him to look so horrible either. His eyes weren't as peat boggy as they normally were; only because they were all puffy like mine were. Michael was crying? But…he doesn't show outward emotion – wait, he's in AMERICA?

I looked at my mother for help. But then I remembered her comment about how I had dumped him and that it was basically my problem.

"Are you gonna be okay, Sweetie?" she asked, balancing Rocky on her hip.

I looked at Michael's pained expression.

"He had rung a few times on the buzzer but I told him you couldn't come to the door," Mr. G explained. "I guess he decided to stick around."

"I'll be okay," I said realizing that no one with the look on Michael's face could do much harm. Plus, I have Lars.

Mom and Mr. G looked at Michael skeptically before leaving. Rocky yelled "Tuk" at him which actually sounded almost like he was saying a curse word.

"I obviously was interrupting on your weekend plans," he managed. "But I thought I at least owed you a chance that you never gave me."

My heart was sinking faster than Crusoe's career. "Chance?" I squeeked out.

"To explain yourself."

I could practically feel my eyes rolling to the back of my head. I took a deep breath. "What can I explain?"

"So I take it that kiss was on purpose? An immature trick to get back at me?"

"Michael, of _course_ not. Why would you even _think_ that?" I asked, falling onto the bench outside my door. "I mean, I didn't even know you would be there."

This didn't help my case.

So I started to cry.

This seemed to do the trick, he sat next to me and put his arm around me. "I didn't mean it like that I mean….I was just _hugging_ him. And maybe my synapses are malfunctioning or I'm just used to hugging _you_ that I went to kiss him on the cheek. A _friendly_ kiss. But he turned his head and that's what you saw."

I turned to look at him after a minute of silence. "Michael, I swear, I haven't even _thought_ of another boy, well other than Orlando Bloom but you already knew that, and he's not even a boy really he's an actor."

I would have continued my rambling, but he told me to shut up. Very Beastly.

"Mia, we've been together for the past two years. And sure, I'll admit that I wasn't a hundred percent honest with you when I didn't tell you about Judith-"

"Or the girl from camp," I added. But he just looked at me like I had a second head.

"Whatever. I'm not going to pretend to know what you are talking about. I did take advantage of your naivete, but I don't think I necessarily _lied_ to you."

"So what was it, you can tell me," I said, choosing to ignore his reference to me as being naïve. "The day we went ice skating at the ice rink? One day in the computer lab you just couldn't keep your hands-"

"Mia, _enough_," he snapped. "It's something that happened in the past. I'm not necessarily _proud_ of it, but I'm certainly not _ashamed_ of it. What I have with you is so much more important than what I had with her. I thought you felt the same…."

_Have?_ "What you have?" I asked hopefully.

He put his hands up in the air, "Have, had, who knows? Geez, Mia I know I love you at this very moment in time. I know I have loved you for the past…I dunno, decade. I think that is a fair determination of how I'll feel in the upcoming years. So what I _have_ for you is love. If I didn't love you then that kiss I saw this afternoon would never have impacted me the way it did…." He took a deep breath.

"I went to the airport," I said softly. "To look for you. But you…you weren't there."

"I didn't_ go_ to the airport, my mother didn't trust my emotional state," he replied. "I got an extension."

"For the robot arm?" Duh.

"Yeah."

"Well…I wouldn't have gone to the airport if I didn't still love you," I admitted. "I knew if I didn't go I'd hate myself forever and that I would never forgive myself. I'm sorry I was being all judgemental and expected you to have the exact same beliefs that I did."

"We were both in the wrong," he replied. "While I should have told you when the subject first came up, you also should have explained why you were so upset. Why were you so upset?"

Well, as long as we are on the path of honesty here, "She saw your _thing_ before I did."

"Who saw my what?"

For a genius he sure was making me explain a lot. "_Judith_ saw your _penis_ before _I_ did, or have."

He shook his head. "If you wanted to see it you just had to _ask,"_ he said in the tone that he used that first night when he told me that he was going to Japan.

I turned to make sure Lars wasn't paying attention to the conversation. I did not need my father to hear all of this.

"I mean, at any point I would have gladly shown you."

I looked at him in horror. He was using past tense. "Shown? Past tense?"

He rolled his eyes, "Mia, fine. I'll show you right _now_ in front of your bodyguard and that guy with a camera over there. But as you know I dislike public affection."

I think if at all possible, my face was redder from embarrassment than from all the crying. "I hate having the truth all out there," I mumbled.

"What?"

"I might as well explain the whole thing."

"That would be good."

"Okay, so you are totally hot, right?"

He looked at me like I had that second head again.

"Well, anyways, I'm…."

"Hot as well," he replied.

"No," I said quickly, "I'm just this awkward looking dorky princess with a Peter Pan haircut and no breasts to speak of."

He very nearly laughed at this. How dare he!

"That's it?" he asked.

"Uh, I think that is kind of a big deal," I replied.

"I thought you were gonna say something about being a princess and having to be a virgin when you got married...you don't have to, right?"

_That_ is his number one concern? "I don't _think_ so...But I think what I just said was a big deal."

"Says who?"

"Me."

"No, who says all this about you?"

"Oh I dunno, Lana Weinberger literally every day at school. My grandmother…."

"Mia, I don't know how many times I have to say this to you, but you are _not_ ugly. You are _not_ awkward looking. You are beautiful."

"Well, I'm self conscious about my body and I know if we were to…you know…do it, you'd see me without clothes on."

He looked at me really hard, as if he were trying to picture it at that moment. "Well, so what?"

See, this is why I never told him. "Michael, I should think after all this time you know that I'm not comfortable with people seeing me naked. I barely can handle the locker room after gym."

"Mia, I love you and you love me….at least I think you do….so what should it matter? I think you are perfect as is."

"But now…what if you see me and then it's all 'Well Judith didn't have a mole in the shape of Brazil on her thigh'?"

"Well, first of all, I know you don't have a mole there because I've seen you in your bathing suit. Second of all I can promise that she will the last thing on my mind when it comes to making love to you. Third of all, I'm in love with you and she means so little. And if I could, I'd go back and erase that who two seconds of my life. If I knew it was going to risk the happiness I have when I'm with you."

Is that not the sweetest thing you have ever heard? "Two seconds?" I asked. "is that all that it takes?"

It was his turn to look embarrassed. "Well, I promise I'll be a lot better when we….if we...whatever."

"When," I replied after a moment.

He looked up at me, "What about that kid?"

"Who?" I asked.

"From your class."

I kind of stared at him in confusion for a minute.

"The guy you kissed," he pushed.

I was still lost.

"God Mia, did you go on a kissing spree today and you don't recall who I am talking about?"

Oh no. He was starting to sound annoyed again. "Oh. JP you mean."

"Yeah. My little sister's ex-boyfriend."

"He's my…oh crap."

"What?"

"I-"I started to tell him the truth. But Grandmere always tells me that you have to decide if the truth if going to make a situation better or worse. On the one hand if Michael had just told me the whole truth about Judith I would have been hurt, but would have gotten past it. But on the other hand, I know JP wouldn't rat me out.

"What?" he asked.

"He's my lab partner," I replied. "And my friend….it'll be weird…."

"Where were you going all dressed up?"

"In this old rag?" I joked.

He really wanted an answer.

_"Honesty is the best policy_," my Mawmaw's, not Grandmere's voice said to me.

"I was going to see Beauty and the Beast…" _Say it Mia…Just say it so there isn't a fight in another year and a half…_ "With JP."

"Oh," he replied, looking around. "Is that why you were hugging him?"

Why debate it longer, "Yeah. He's just being a good friend."

"Well…is he gonna be a good friend who will stick his tongue in your mouth while I go to Japan?"

Ah…the truth comes out. He doesn't want me to hook up with anyone else. "Of course not….wait….are we back together?"

"If you'll have me," he replied, dangling my snowflake necklace in front of me.

"I've been in the Royal jewelry room but I've never wanted a piece of jewelry around my neck in my whole life."

"You are so corny," he replied as he fastened it around my neck.

"My boyfriend says I'm perfect, as is."

"Mia I'm still going to Japan, so this isn't going to be easy."

"Nothing worthwhile ever is," I countered.

He smiled, but soldiered on, "We have to be honest with one another. Little worries or freak outs are welcomed."

Geez, I wonder if he knows about my nostrils.

"I'll be honest right now, I have no intention of hooking up with anyone else. But I don't want you to resent me either. But if you hook up with someone else don't tell me. Unless it becomes a big deal…"

"Nothing will happen. You are the one I want. One day, you _will_ be mine."

He tried to recall where he'd heard that line for a full minute before remembering it was what he told me a year before. "But don't feel like you can't…you know…"

I rolled my eyes; he wasn't going to let up on this. "Okay Michael."

We both knew we wanted to make out. But instead he said, "Are you gonna go meet JP?"

God, like I'd leave my boyfriend who is leaving in less than twenty four hours? To be with a guy that dumped my best friend and with whom my boyfriend thought I was having an affair? Unlikely. "No. He'll figure it out."

"Is there somewhere we could go and…well, practice?" he asked.

I looked at Lars; sitting on a bench and pretending to listen to the bum on the street lecture him about handguns. "Well we could go upstairs and watch Star Wars. Or pretend to watch Star Wars."

He nodded in agreement. "Should I let Lars know?"

I sighed. I had to tell my bodyguard. After the stunt the other night I had to tell him everything I did.

He followed us upstairs and did a sweep of my mother's loft to make sure that no one broke into the apartment in the hour we had left.

"I'll be right outside," he said, eyeing Michael suspiciously. He knew what our whole fight had been about and was probably thinking I was gonna Do It.

We didn't Do It that night. We did make out A LOT…and maybe we kind of started to round second base a little bit…..or a lot a bit. But it doesn't matter because I got to smell his neck.

"What are you doing?" he asked finally.

"Uhm…nothing."

"Sniffing my neck?"

Busted. "Uh, well, yeah."

"Why?" he asked, laughing.

"I dunno…it makes me think everything will be okay…I guess."

His face turned serious, "It _will_ be okay."

I still didn't believe it when he said it, but I smelled his neck and realized it would be okay.

"A year really isn't all _that_ long," I said reluctantly.

"No I mean, think of all that you have to do in the next year, right? You have PSATS, and SATS in the spring, princess lessons, Genovia, the presidency, your friends….you are a really busy person."

"I'm not president. Lilly hates me."

"Who doesn't she hate?"

"She didn't hate me until today when that hall thing happened. She told me on the phone that we'd been friends long enough."

He rolled her eyes, "She's being overdramatic. Give it time and she'll get over it and be mad at someone else. Plus, now she gets to be president of the school."

I sighed and rested my head on his chest. Would it really be a whole year before I did this again?

We reluctantly said our goodbyes for the night. We only did so because Lars told me he saw my mother and stepfather pull into their spot; home already from their trip to Long Island. "You'll come to the airport?" he asked.

I really didn't want to see Lilly. But I wanted to see him more than anything. "Of course I will come with you. Would you guys like a ride there?"

"So I can arrive in style?" he teased. "That'll be great. I have to check in by five thirty."

"So I'll get you at four."

"Right…so….this is the last time we'll be alone for awhile, huh?" he asked.

I nodded, sadly accepting this as fact.

"So I should give you something to remember me by," he replied, taking me in his arms and kissing me like I've never been kissed before.

Only, when we parted we realized my family was standing down the hall pretending not to notice us but were highly interested in the plant that Ronnie had put in the hall.

"I love ya, Thermopolis," he whispered.

I smiled, "Love you too."

The next day my limo picked him up but only he and his parents got in. "Where's Lilly?" I asked.

"Don't ask," was Michael's response.

His parents said their goodbyes to him and tactfully allowed us to be alone before he left. "Here," he said, handing me a big envelope.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Just…so I'm gonna miss a lot in the next year with you, right?"

Geez Michael, way to remind me.

"Well, anyway, there is a card for everything I'm going to miss."

I peeked inside, "Michael, there's like a billion in here."

"Not quite," he replied. "Three hundred and sixty five. That way, even though we won't talk all the time or everyday, then at least you know I'm thinking of you."

Wow. Way thoughtful. When did he do all of this? "And I have nothing for you," I replied, feeling kind of stupid.

"Don't worry. Just…beg your dad for that camera for your computer, okay?"

I smiled, "I'll get my mom on him about it."

"Oh, and my neck," he replied, rummaging through his duffel bag.

"Huh?"

"Here is my cologne," he replied.

I smelt it, not quite as good as it is when mixed with his neck, but it's the thought that counts. "This sucks," I said softly, looking at other couples saying goodbye.

"Not as bad as the past two days have," he countered. "Once I leave it'll just be another day closer to getting home."

Still wasn't making it better. "Okay, go save millions of lives. I'll just hang back here."

He kissed me softly after looking around to be sure that no one had a camera on us.

"I'll miss you," he called back as he went through check-in.

_Princesses never call out affections_ Grandmere's voice said to me. "I'll miss you too!"

So maybe my boyfriend _is _leaving for a whole year. Maybe my best friend is kind of sort of hating me right now. But I still have my other friends to keep me company.

But JP told me he understood about last night and he had run into one of his father's friends who had brought his daughter with him to see the show. So I still have him as my pal. Tina will never desert me, nor will Perin. I'm sure once Lilly gets it into her head that I'm not with JP and never will be with JP she'll understand and come around again.

A princesses' life is never easy; but no one ever said it was.


End file.
